i have a very small and young cat (4.5yrs) who has been constipated/obstipated for two years now. she's been on fibre, pills, had several clearouts and enemas at home. am doing all the laxative/food things. three vets have advised me to do the surgery ( all have been locums at my local clinic) the other three have said that surgery is definately not a good idea and should be a very last resort. i am inclined to agree with the latter vets who treat little piggy regularly. however, what i don't know is when is time for the last resort? how long do i keep trying to manage it myself? poor piggy is so distressed all the time and i don't want to be prolonging her suffering and giving her a lesser quality of life if there is another option that will enable her to live happily. has anyone had experience with subtotal colectomy that they would be willing to share? i also have three other cats and need to take into account their welfare and stress levels in any decision. thank you.

First of all I would do the surgery last resort. And I would get your kitty off of the added fibre. This is the old way of thinking. And it sounds like it is not working for your kitty either. What medications and doses are you giving your kitty. A great stool softner is Miralax (called PEG 3350 in Canada). And if the stool softner and reduced fibre diet (MAX 1 to 1.5% Fibre content grain free canned food) does not work alone then your kitty may need a motility drug called Cisapride. My kitty has Megacolon and has been doing well on tis regimen. And yes at first the vet wanted me to do the high fibre, lactulose route too but they did not work.

You may want to join this group that deals with constipation and megacolon only http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline_Megacolon/
Lots of great support and advice for you there. And many people that have had the surgery done on their kitties.

thanks for your responses. piggy has been at the vet for 2 days now, being cleared out. she can come home today...yipee!
the food etc things i mentioned are as follows.....she has tried:
peridale/metamucil/pumpkin/prunejuice/butternut squash baby food/ ice cream/(none worked)
she has changed her diet to NO dry food for over a year now...she gets extra water in her food and has 5ml lactulose morning and 5ml in the evening. (1 year now) she has tried royal canin sensitivity food, urinary diet (she sometimes develops cystitis when really stressed) and the intestinal and recovery blends too. have tried her on simple white fish but she won't eat it.
she also has small enemas at least once every two weeks at home from me and she gets catlax antifurball ointment on her paw once or twice daily. we also use feliway to try to keep the atmosphere as calm as possible with all 4 cats.

we have been advised to give her cisapride, which we have tried and it seems to work best. here is the problem: i live in hong kong and we can't get hold of any at all. my vet said that it has stopped being produced and my best bet is to try for backstock in the u.s.a.....i don't know who to ask as it is a prescription med...and if my vet can't get any, then i'm not sure how i can...advice on this would me very much appreciated...

piggy was desexed when she was 9 months old. she was found abandoned with her sister in a box on a construction site at a few days old and taken in by the girl who found her, but not very well cared for. they had no litter tray and would defecate around the apartment and were 'fed' unlit cigarettes as a 'party trick'. i inherited them at 8 months old when the girl could no longer cope and my vet asked me to make them part of our family.

i do agree that surgery is the last resort and am aware that so many different opinons can be confusing, especially when i'm emotional or upset at piggy's distress....thank you all for your messages, the support and the links....i'll be looking into things very carefully and am grateful for all the suggestions and advice

piggy has been home for almost 2 weeks now and is just a s greedy as always! she's managing to go to the toilet a bit by herself and is back to being playful and energetic. i hope we can mamage her symptoms well for the next few months. thanks to all for the support and advice